The birds have known it for weeks. Spring is coming, the earth is warming up and everything is getting ready for the long, lush days ahead. There’s not the same incredible feeling of rebirth as in the northern hemisphere – particularly not in this corner of the world, where evergreen trees light up the dull…

Cat at Raspberry Rainbow wants to know what’s on your windowsill. Here’s what’s on mine… The blue ceramic dish used to hold a trio of tiny ballet dancers, white china with pale pink tutus. I’m not sure what happened to them, but now it’s become a repository for kitchen odds and ends. The pound coins…

… putting the baby to bed on a wet, windy Saturday night and discovering that your Beloved has made you a heart-shaped potato cake to eat with rare Scotch fillet, a tumble of greens and a glass of pinot noir. The heart shaped cake won points for cuteness but the round ones tasted just as…

Recipe testing last night for an upcoming issue of Frankie magazine – testing in more ways than one. I thought I had it all sorted – then remembered I’d forgotten to buy watercress. Then when I was foraging in the garden (in the dark) for rocket I remembered we didn’t have any soy sauce. Then I couldn’t…